Chronicle diseases and other physiological conditions such as diabetes, asthma or the like, that require effective therapeutic care over long periods of time have become a widespread phenomenon. Typically, such diseases require medication and/or a control of the patient's lifestyle.
Diabetes is one such chronic condition of the human body in which lack of insulin raises the blood sugar levels which in turn has harmful effects that sometimes may even endanger the patient's life. A diabetic has to be very careful about the level of blood sugar in his/her body and therefore has to constantly monitor the activities that are likely to have an impact on the same. To keep the blood sugar level in check, a diabetic has to sometimes take artificial insulin. As of now this is generally done by way of insulin injections. These injections have to be administered after considering the patient's present condition as well as carefully predicting the near future state. To this end, various blood sugar measurement devices such as strips and meters are available in the market. For the ease of operation by the user as well as for portability, the measurement devices have also been combined with insulin administration devices. This way the patient can carry one device that would not only measure his/her disease related parameters but would also assist him/her in administering his/her medicine.
With the advancement in technology, these devices have become even more sophisticated and now incorporate additional functionality such as recording the patient's disease related data and other useful information. Some of these devices also have communication means that connect them to other computing devices to form a network. The patient, the patient's doctor and other people can then use the information present on these devices in various ways such as for analysis. International Publication Nos. WO 00/32088, WO 03/005891 and WO 03/015838 all describe such medical devices, networks and method of their operation along with some of the possibilities in the domain. These publications are incorporated herein in entity by way of reference.
US Publication No. US 2003/0028089 discloses a system for managing diabetes that allows the patient to enter his data and in turn recommends the future insulin intake for the patient. However, it remains up to the patient to follow the recommended actions, and there remains a need for a method that assists a user in following a prescribed treatment plan.
US publication no. U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,951 discloses an insulin pump that issues a warning if the user forgets to initiate a bolus within a predetermined period after a meal time. Even though the issued warnings help a user to remember a forgotten bolus, the above prior art system forces a user into a rather strict schedule of meals and does not address the problem of providing a self-management system that is flexible with respect to individual user's lifestyles.